02 January, 2016

One year after Syriza won

Greece
and the eurozone: what’s left?

by Tom
Vouloumanos

It was
almost a year ago that Europe elected its first radical Left
government since WWII: the Syriza government in Athens under Alexis
Tsipras.

Syriza was
supposed to signal the beginning of the end of neoliberal hegemony in
Europe and begin the wave of a Mediterranean pink tide. Within its
first months in power, Brussels tightened the screws on Athens. The
Troika (EU-ECB-IMF) could not afford to cave into a single demand as
Madrid and Lisbon would follow.

Finance
Minister, Yanis Varoufakis was ridiculed for making elementary
economic demands: Greece was bankrupt and in order to pay back its
creditors, it needed growth and debt restructuring, not austerity.
But the creditors did not care about being paid back, they were in
fact subsidizing bank loans to Greece via taxpayers’ money, so that
Greece could pay back older loans to those same private banks with
the caveat that it implement an aggressive neoliberal program. One
can see the anger of many Europeans who are led to believe that their
hard earned euros are going to the pockets of so-called “lazy tax
evading southerners,” but in fact this money is being used to
replenish the coffers of private lenders via a bankrupt state all the
while radically impoverishing its population.

The
creditors had stalled negotiations with Tsipras for months, while the
Greek state continued to make loan repayments without receiving the
next tranche of loans, drying up cash flow. The Troika stuck to the
same austerity package, rescinding on little progress during
“negotiations.” Finally, with his back to the wall in the summer
of 2015, Tsipras put the Troika’s “offer” to a referendum.
Brussels responded by freezing ECB liquidity to the Greek banking
system forcing the government to place capital controls. To the
amazement of the continent, 62 percent of Greeks voted no to
austerity, even though, it was being made clear by the Troika that
the wrong choice would lead to forced Grexit causing Greek bank
deposits to vanish. Varoufakis had developed a secret contingency
plan, known only to a small clique of government cadres. The plan was
to create a parallel virtual euro to allow for electronic
transactions to continue thus avoiding economic meltdown. Then Athens
would take over the Bank of Greece and proceed to nationalize or at
least centrally control the banking system. Finally, Greece would
stop making any loan repayments to the Troika keeping any additional
liquidity for the humanitarian crisis. The plan was prepared for a
forced exit all the while resisting the Troika’s offensive. The
creditors would then have to sort out their divisions between those
who wanted a Grexit and those who did not want to enter the slippery
slope of eurozone disintegration and the potential geopolitical
fallout. Tsipras refused the contingency plan since Grexit forced or
otherwise did not enjoy public support. Varoufakis, Syriza’s Left
Platform faction and others, believed the referendum results changed
the paradigm and all bets were off. The only non-acceptable road was
austerity. As government leaders believed they faced economic
oblivion, Tsipras capitulated and signed on to a Third Memorandum. It
was a financial coup.

Varoufakis
left the government. The Left Platform formed the Popular Unity party
(LAE) that supported an orderly Grexit. Other Syriza argued that even
in the event of a Grexit, Athens would still need to borrow money
from the same creditors under similar conditions. All the dissidents,
no matter which way they went, maintained that the opportunity that
was made possible after the referendum was squandered.

Syriza went
back to the polls to both ratify its volte-face and expunge its
dissidents. Tsipras was again elected to office albeit to less
enthusiastic applause. The high hopes of Syriza’s victory in
January 2015 had turned to pessimism taking the winds out of sails of
Podemos and other European Left forces.

The new
Syriza government is now grudgingly and under constant threat
implementing a program it fought against. Yet ranks and file leftist
still hope of resistance even within the paradigm of Troika rule. One
can call this ‘Gresistance’ i.e. a form of resistance within
austerity that is both legal and subversive.

Gresistance
is about stretching any terms of the Memorandum, in order for the
wealthy to wear the deal rather than impoverished Greeks. It is about
turning a blind eye to anti-social laws not being executed or obeyed.
It is not an official policy, it is subtle and unspoken and it is
unfortunately in the tradition of Greek para-state corruption.
Gresistance is understood as an unofficial informal means of
mitigating the humanitarian catastrophe and it was even euphemised in
Syriza’s post-referendum campaign as a parallel program. This
program was not detailed, it was a statement of values, but it was a
subtle indicator of Gresistance.

The
creditors are well aware of this, and do not trust Syriza even with
its left flank cleansed out. The Troika wants the bailout laws passed
and carried out before providing cash flow. Brussel technocrats are
not concerned about economic indicators, they are cognizant that an
economy under austerity will continue to shrink the state’s
capacity to service its debt. The goal is to impose a two tier
neoliberal model under corporate-technocratic rule. One tier will
hold the wealth and industry, the other tier will provide cheap
labour and resources. This is the Europe of Merkel and Schauble and
it is this Europe that is being acquiesced to by Madrid, Rome and
Paris.

Today, the
hopes of a year ago have turned to despair. Syriza hoped that
Portuguese and Spanish elections would bring Left allies to power -
but this was not be. Syriza’s retreat was devastating to the
European anti-neoliberal cause.

So what is
Left of the Greek Left? Its people!

The myriad
of social experiments, whether cooperatives, solidarity networks, or
alternative currencies need our support. There is much to do for
Athens, especially now. Syriza should host a European alternative
economy forum. The various grassroots models of economic alternatives
need to be discussed and made public. The people behind European
social or solidarity economic experiments need to coalesce, teach one
another and take common action. These grassroots initiatives can be
assisted politically by parties such as Syriza, LAE, Podemos, Die
Linke and the like. Syriza can provide concrete assistance to the
alternative economy such as coordinating alternative currency
initiatives by issuing virtual credit to citizens so that they can
buy products like food directly from farmers. People are already
trading items on the net via virtual points. These virtual points can
be accumulated and used as payments for public utilities, taxes, etc.
The military can be used to ship food, medicine etc. from social
solidarity groups to a public in need. Such a forum can be formalized
within Greece as a People’s Parliament, where representatives of
civil society can meet, coordinate efforts, and build the foundation
of an alternative economy movement.

Even under
the boot of austerity, Syriza can assist civil society in building
new participatory institutions so as to plant the seeds of a
post-neoliberal Greece and a help build a pan European popular
coalition for another Europe.

3 comments:

Tsipras refused the contingency plan since Grexit forced or otherwise did not enjoy public support.

The referendum showed Grexit has public support. Tsipras buckled because he is weak and stupid.

Other Syriza argued that even in the event of a Grexit, Athens would still need to borrow money from the same creditors under similar conditions. Why? No reason to say this but abject ignorance. Ignorance based on fear of thinking, learning or saying something true if everyone else - men in suits with fancy degrees - who looks like they know what they are talking - babble nonsense to the contrary.

This glaringly omits Schauble's offer of negotiated Grexit - an outcome better than I had hoped for. Syriza's negotiating strategy was a success! The problem is that they, Tsipras in particular, simply could not recognize victory - not if people in suits, with fancy titles and degrees didn't call it victory.

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. One can never say that too much. In fact, it is practically the only weapon - really, what else is needed?

"The referendum showed Grexit has public support. Tsipras buckled because he is weak and stupid."

Not really. Otherwise the Greek people would not vote for him after he signed the third catastrophic memorandum, plus, they didn't vote for Popular Unity, the party that came out of SYRIZA split and supported the exit from euro and the liberation from the EFD. Unfortunately, the Greek people have chosen euro and they will pay for it.

What people will do after they have been deceived and betrayed, after their will has been broken - which notably includes not voting at all - is different from what they would do with a non-suicidal leader who actually tells them the truth - that exiting from a currency union is not such a big deal, and it would be greatly beneficial. The polls before the referendum declined a bit after it was made clear that the Eurocracy was "threatening" exit, making it clear that the No vote was pretty solid - if it only had had support from the "top".